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Earlier this week, a report surfaced out of Montreal that former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was spotted in a restaurant with UFC president Dana White and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta. At this point, no one is saying what the meeting was about. Maybe it was just one rich dude and two wealthy dudes sitting down for a lunch of Venison Haunch and Saucisson or Suckling Pig Rack and Flank (offered on the restaurant’s lunch menu at $36 and $42 respectively), or maybe it was a meeting to gauge St-Pierre’s interest in a return to the Octagon.

My sincere hope, for both the UFC and St-Pierre is that it was the former, not the latter. However, if the conversation was about a St-Pierre return to the UFC, I would advise both sides to stop right now because it will not help either in the long run.

In the post-fight press conference, White said of St-Pierre, “You owe it to the fans, you owe it to that belt, you owe it to this company, and you owe it to Johny Hendricks to give him that opportunity to fight again, unless you’re gonna retire…There’s no ‘Hey listen I’m gonna go on a cruise and be gone for two years.’”

It was an impassioned speech; too bad none of it happened to be true. St-Pierre, a man that made the UFC millions of dollars didn’t (and doesn’t) owe anyone anything. White’s public reaction to his cash cow walking away was ugly, nasty and served as a reminder of how quickly he is willing to throw a fighter under the bus, even if that fighter is recognized as one of the greatest combatants ever to set foot in the Octagon.

To his detractors (aka Nick Diaz fans), that makes GSP a cold-blooded space-alien, a nerd who talks like a robot. That persona was set in stone at UFC 63 — eight years ago today, on September 23rd, 2006 — when St-Pierre infamously told Matt Hughes “I’m not impressed by your performance,” following Hughes’s third-round TKO victory against BJ Penn.

Even to this day, it’s still the most famous thing that the ex-champ has ever said, and has remained a dependable punchline among MMA fans. The St-Pierre/Hughes cage confrontation was incredibly awkward in its own way — “I’m not impressed by your performance” is like something Data would say to Wesley Crusher after learning about human combat sports. And yet, it was absolutely perfect for that moment.

My first thought following the main event of UFC 167 was that Georges St. Pierre had a concussion. Granted, “hack journalist” is a far cry from doctor, but he was displaying symptoms that should make any sports fan concerned. He lost track of what round it was, he had trouble forming words, and the completely vacant look in his eyes was disturbing — even for a guy as stoic as GSP.

If this thought occurred to Dana White and the media members in attendance, they did a damn fine job of hiding it. You know what happened by now: White claimed St. Pierre “owed” everyone an immediate rematch, the media attempted to steer Georges St. Pierre away from talking about the signs of brain damage he has been experiencing — despite St. Pierre’s best attempts to do otherwise — and White eventually talked to the champ in private before downplaying everything that St. Pierre admitted to experiencing as much as possible.

As Stand and Bang accurately wrote, “White’s behavior [was] so transparently morally repugnant that there’s no reason to spend time pedantically analyzing it.” He wanted to pressure GSP back into the cage as quickly as possible, because the longer the champion has to reflect upon the damage that he’s done to himself, the less likely he is to return to the sport. Yet there are actually fans — and plenty of them — who managed to take the bait. There are fans who buy the ideas that St. Pierre somehow “owes” it to anyone to accept a rematch against Johny Hendricks, that he’s obligated to return to the cage immediately, that Dana White’s dangerously-capitalistic treatment of his most influential champion is completely acceptable.

And let’s not forget the most disgusting part about this: These fans are delusional enough to say with a straight face that MMA is about “respect.”

It’ll be a familiar process for GSP, who blew out the ACL in his right knee in December 2011, and didn’t return until the following November, when he defeated interim champion Carlos Condit at UFC 154. In other words, he’s rebounded from this injury before, and he could certainly do it again. If he wanted to. Which he might not. When informed of the news, UFC president Dana White had some rather backhanded words of sympathy:

“I didn’t think his hiatus was going to be that long. That’s one of the risks you run when you get away from the sport like that. You have a small window as a professional athlete to make what you can. The guy gave up his belt, walked away from the sport, and now he’s out for who knows how long.”

During an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Company while promoting his new documentary, Takedown: The DNA of GSP, former welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre discussed a little known facet of his personality that has both fueled his professional life and inhibited his personal one: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. According to St. Pierre, not only has he suffered from the mental anxiety disorder for some time now, but it was the main reason he decided to vacate his title indefinitely following his UFC 167 win over Johny Hendricks.

It was going to drive me crazy. That’s why I took that break.

Everything you do is oriented around that goal. But the same thing could be bad for a normal person in normal life. As a fighter it’s a good thing to have it, because it makes you better because you completely obsess about being a better martial artist.

You hear that? Not even GSP’s brain can ‘andle his riddum’ (I am so going to Hell).

White’s denial was based in solid, boring logic. It’s hard to imagine St-Pierre making a career-changing announcement without the UFC’s advance knowledge, and the champ could just be showing up to shake hands, kiss babies, and plug his new movie. But then, Dana actually spoke to GSP yesterday, and shit — as they say — got real. It was suddenly announced last night that the UFC would be holding a “special media conference call” with White and St-Pierre today, beginning at 2:20 p.m. ET. No other details were released, although White told Ariel Helwani that the call will be about “stuff that people want to hear.”

So that’s that, for now. Stay tuned to CagePotato this afternoon, and we’ll let you know what happens, as soon as it happens.

At last, at last, a remake of the 1989 Jean Claude Van Damme vehicle, Kickboxer, is on the way. Put your worries to rest, Nation, the Karate Kid ripoff once described as “the dumbest action picture of the year” will finally be told the way it should. Not since the Power Rangers reboot have I been so excited to see another blatant cash grab! Focus group testing FTW!!

The film will also be introducing Alain Moussi as its lead. Mr. Moussi is a world-renowned stunt man / martial artists, performing in such films as (X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, IMMORTALS, PACIFIC RIM, WHITEHOUSE DOWN). “Alain is a star and will be an amazing leading man,” said Filed “Like Vin in RIDDICK, Alain will make this movie very special and this KICKBOXER reboot will be the start of an amazing franchise”.

Additional cast will be announced shortly.

A foreign director’s big screen American debut, starring a stuntman, an MMA fighter, and a professional wrestler. HOW COULD IT GO WRONG?!

(In a shocking turn of events, St. Pierre announces that he will be retiring from MMA to replace A.J. Pierzynski’s catcher’s mitt in the 2014 season. Photo via Esther Lin/MMAFighting.)

As it has been ever since UFC 167, the MMA blogosphere is currently abuzz with speculation regarding the future of welterweight kingpin Georges St. Pierre. Amidst (hopefully) false rumors pertaining to his father’s illness, an unplanned pregnancy, and a multi-million dollar lawsuit with his former manager, St. Pierre announced his semi-retirement from the sport immediately following his controversial split decision win over Johny Hendricks, only to be buried by Dana White for having the gall to worry about his own health and personal life thereafter.

According to the Journal de Montreal, St. Pierre plans on holding a press conference this Friday to address his future in the UFC and clear the air regarding the multitude of rumors surrounding him. But being that sports journalism thrives on speculation, we’ve decided to go ahead and predict the four most likely reasons for GSP’s upcoming presser, as well as what the MMA world will be facing come Saturday morning.

In any case, UFC president Dana White is intent on bringing GSP back to fight Hendricks again and, according to a new report from Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole, who is in Macau to cover the Manny Pacquiao/Brandon Rios boxing match this week, “Rush” told “PacMan” trainer Freddie Roach that he’ll never fight again if he doesn’t have him in his corner.

Roach said he has yet to speak to St-Pierre on the telephone, but said the champion texted him.

“He said, ‘I’m not going to fight again unless you are in my corner,’” Roach said. Asked to clarify if that meant on fight night, as well, Roach said, “Absolutely.” To this point, Roach has never been in a UFC fighter’s corner on the night of a fight.

Roach, always eager to promote himself, also said that he “pretty much came up with the game plan” for St. Pierre against Hendricks. So…good job?

I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Georges St. Pierre and his camp are messing with us. In recent months, speculation that the UFC welterweight champion might soon retire after he fights Johny Hendricks this Saturday at UFC 167 has run rampant.

For the most part, St. Pierre himself and his head trainer Firas Zahabi have pretty much been the sources of this speculation, and since then they’ve attempted to discredit the rumor that they themselves got started. The latest “Georges should/might retire” item came from none other than St. Pierre’s long time mentor Kristof Midoux, a.k.a. the big old school fighter guy that recently appeared on the third episode of UFC Primetime: St. Pierre vs. Hendricks.

Midoux recently did an interview with French Canadian publication La Presse where he revealed that he told St. Pierre that, should he beat Hendricks in impressive fashion, the champion should retire right there in the Octagon. (Rough translation via Google/us):

“I said, after this, it’s over! Shine that night. Finish this guy in front of everyone. Shut the mouths of your critics. If you finish this guy, if you knock him out, then you will be free, you’ll be happy to take the microphone and tell everyone you’re done — to say that you will leave room for others.

“I told George, have the courage to take the microphone and say thank you to everyone. Those who do not understand are those who have nothing to understand, those who are selfish. It is time to think about him. This is the greatest gift that he could have. He could enjoy life, spend time with his family.

“I want it to happen like that. I really wish he doesn’t make the mistake of so many fighters. I do not want him to keep competing when he’s 35.”